In 1865, British mountaineer Edward Whymper led the first climbing party to successfully scale the Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in the Alps and one of the last of the Alpine peaks to be conquered. Author and veteran mountaineer James Ramsey Ullman fictionalized the event in his novel Banner in the Sky, changing the name of the peak to the Citadel and making the hero a young man whose father, a famous mountain guide, died saving his client on an expedition up the mountain. That book became the basis for the 1959 Disney adventure Third Man on the Mountain, directed by Ken Annakin and starring Disney's new discovery, James MacArthur.

The son of actress Helen Hayes, MacArthur was spotted by Disney in his debut feature, The Young Stranger (1957) and made his Disney debut a year later in The Light in the Forest (1958). Third Man on the Mountain was his second Disney feature and his first leading role for the family studio. To prepare for the role, MacArthur joined his co-stars for a two-week crash course in mountaineering in the Swiss Alps. Many of them became so proficient that they performed some of their own stunts. "They had some really fine Swiss mountain climbers doing some scaling of the mountains that was beyond my skills," explained MacArthur in an interview years later. "But Ken [Annakin, the director] had me out hanging over 3,000 foot drops."

British actor Michael Rennie (forever famed as the alien visitor Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951) took top billing as the British climber, named Captain John Winter for this story, and the lovely ingénue Janet Munro (fresh from Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People, 1959) was cast as MacArthur's supportive sweetheart. She also did her own fair share of climbing, according to director Annakin. "She was one who would do anything," he remarked. While the young leads escaped unscathed, James Donald, who plays MacArthur's uncle, fell eighteen feet off a crag and injured himself, according to studio press materials.

The production shot for two months on location in the town of Zermatt, Switzerland, located at the base of the Alps. In addition to mountain footage, the scenes of village life were shot on location. Dancers and singers from the Valasian villages of Sierre and Sion were brought in to perform authentic folk dances and music for the festival scenes, wearing their own costumes for the film. Along with locals, MacArthur's mother, Helen Hayes, and his then-wife, Joyce Bulifant, both appear in cameos as tourists in the Alpine village, making it the only film in which mother and son both appear. The book's author, James Ramsey Ullman, also makes an unbilled cameo among the extras.

For the more dangerous and spectacular climbing scenes, producer Bill Anderson secured the services of famed alpine climber and mountain guide Gaston Rébuffat, the first man to climb all six of the great north faces of the Alps (including the Matterhorn), to be their mountain unit director. Rébuffat had produced the award-winning climbing documentary Étoiles et Tempêtes (1955) with photographer George Tairrez and the two reunited to shoot the film's location footage with professional climbers. The camera team had to haul the movie equipment up to the summit of the Matterhorn and back on their backs in 60-pound packs, making a challenging climb even more treacherous. For more intimate scenes with the stars, the mountain locations were recreated on a London soundstage with matte paintings by the great Peter Ellenshaw providing a breathtaking backdrop.

Third Man on the Mountain opened to good reviews--"It has the sort of high altitude thrills to send the viewer cowering deep in his seat and the sort of moving drama to put him on the edge of it," read the Variety notice, while The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther noted that " the dramatic development is simple, the sentiments are noble and true, and the mountain-climbing action is daring, convincing and rough on the nerves"--but disappointing box-office. Nonetheless it was reportedly one of Walt Disney's favorite live action films and an inspiration for a Disneyland landmark. Disney loved Switzerland--he took his family there for summer vacations--and was on location for much of the shooting. While hiking around in the shadow of the Alps, he came up with the idea for the Matterhorn Bobsled ride at Disneyland. The attraction was up and running back home months before the film even opened and remains an iconic attraction at the theme park.

Sources:
"New Heights: Walt and Third Man on the Mountain," Jim Fanning. Storyboard, December 30, 2011.
AFI catalog
IMDb

By Sean Axmaker